What I read

Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce

What it’s about

Chizuru Akitani is 12 years old, living in Japan with her American mother and her Japanese father. Shortly after the sudden death of her mother, Chizuru stabs a classmate, killing him. The rest of her youth is spent in a detention centre, and it’s while she’s there that she becomes estranged from her father. When Chizuru gets out, she is eager to start over, to begin a new life in a new place. She moves to America and changes her name to Rio.

In America, no one knows about Chizuru–not even Rio’s husband or daughter. But when Rio gets a package in the mail after her father passes away, she returns to Japan, where she has to face her former self and her secrets.

This is a story about identity, about how while we may reinvent ourselves, we can’t run away from the past. It’s about learning how to move forward. It’s also about the journeys we take–physical, mental and emotional–to get to where we need to be.

Why I picked it up

When I first heard about this book, I was drawn in by the premise of a child killer. I was interested in reading about the motivation behind the stabbing but also in how that action taken as a child would affect the life of an adult. I placed a copy of this book on hold from the Toronto Public Library.

What I liked about it

One of my favourite aspects of this book is its structure. There were dips into the past so that motivations and events were slowly revealed. While this structure creates suspense, it also helps to illustrate a protagonist who has been suppressing memories and how she must face them in order to move forward.

You’ll want to read it if…

This book is for fans of literary fiction who enjoy elements of suspense and adventure stories. At the core of the novel is Rio coming to terms with her past, and her return to Japan to find answers makes this a sort of quest narrative as well.

Recommended refreshments

One word: onigiri. This Japanese snack is a rice ball, often wrapped in seaweed, that can contain a variety of fillings (pork, tuna, etc.). Luce’s descriptions of this food had me salivating. I have never been to Japan, but I have eaten onigiri that a Japanese friend made for me, and this book reminded me of how delicious they were.